Edwin Longsden Long

Edwin Long painted large, crowded scenes of the ancient world, set in Egypt, Babylon and the early Christian era, with carefully researched costumes, architecture and objects. His pictures were among the most sought after of Victorian England.

Born in Bath, he trained in London and travelled to Spain with the painter John Phillip, where he studied Velázquez. Spanish subjects came first, but after visiting Egypt and Syria in 1874 he turned to the Middle East and antiquity. The Babylonian Marriage Market (1875) sold for a record price for a living British artist, and it now hangs in Royal Holloway, University of London. He became a Royal Academician in 1881 and opened his own gallery on Bond Street in 1883.

Anno Domini, which shows the Holy Family passing an Egyptian procession, and An Egyptian Feast show his taste for detailed, theatrical history.